I'm not that too satisfied with the entry of Laika's father. Who in the world will push the door bell when entering your house? Anyway, it's a very typical usage of character enterance and I don't like it too much ^_^;

I couldn't come up with a good character design for Laika's father, so I just referenced my favorite character from the movie (by the way, I love LotR).

I need to add in more details to the page when I get home (screentones, for example). Anyway, I'm back to drawing. Sorry for the wait.

This week Pittsburgh is having its very own anime con, Tekkoshokon. I've preregistered along with the rest of Vermillion, so I'll definitely be there for at least part of the weekend, in case people want to meet up. It's a nice small-scale local con without the huge crowds or monster lines that are the hallmarks of the big-time regional cons (and without the big-name Japanese guests, unfortunately). Initially we were thinking of doing a club-wide group cosplay, filling out the Eureka 7 cast, but eventually decided against it due to having only a couple of members who could sew, both of whom got buried under the CMU workload. Still, this year's con should be fun and serve as a nice warm-up for the summer con season.

I've been poking around the north-eastern US cons for the better part of a decade now, and it's still a thrill to see flocks of bright-haired fanboys and scantily clad fangirls start to appear as you're driving up to the con hotel. And while the typical con attractions like video showings (seen it months or years earlier), panels (been to enough of those that I could probably run one now), or the masquerade (amateur costume makers = win, amateur actors with malfunctioning microphones = cringe) don't particularly appeal to me anymore, it's still a huge rush just to wade through the sea of geekdom (while thanking the gods for blessing me with a weakened sense of smell) and poke around the dealers' room while waiting for the AMV contest to start.

Aside from Tekko, I'm also thinking of hitting up A-Kon (registration: $37, plane tickets: $300, hotel rooms: $142/night, squealing like a little schoolgirl when KOTOKO walks onto the stage: priceless) and Otakon this year. Otakon has been a constant for me since 1997 (when I slept in my car to save money for the dealers' room) and turned into an annual reunion for my CMU friends and acquaintances who've since graduated and spread all over the country.